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Sunday 13 March 2016

After Chicago: The DrumpfsReich Rolls Through the Heartland

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Scuffle between these two menz: image via Alex Seitz-Wald @aseitzwald, 12 March 2016

I try to watch the Drumpfstream from the Cleveland stop
seeing it all in a strange blur as through large drops of rain
the stream is one long surreal interruption of itself
attention is dominated by what we are not being shown
unseen disturbances "offstage" "in the wings"
everyone on the screen appears on the brink of going
totally short twitch insane in one second
a toxic odor as of burnt plastic seems to be coming out of the screen
the orange guy's eyes and mouth become very small and round
as they always do when he's angry and saying the same thing over and over
but nobody on the screen seems to be actually listening to him
it's like an advertisement for attention deficit disorder
everybody tuning out, then back in, then out, then in,
glancing up and down

anxiously, waiting for the real action to happen
mouthbreathing, maybe thinking the quick vacant thoughts of the undead,
and behind the orange guy there's this buffed dude in
a blue drumpf t-shirt who seems to be especially afflicted with saint
vitas' dance, he's twitching so bad it almost makes the screen
twitch along with him, and it's hard not to feel
we're waiting too, so very impatiently,
expectantly, menacingly, mercilessly, for the real action to begin 


File:Ochsenfurt 1930er Umzug Wagen  Sparkasse.jpg

May 1st parade, Germany, 1930s: photo by Paul Walde; image by Andreas Praefcke, 2005


Front lawn, West Carrollton, Ohio: image via Alec MacGillis @AlecMcGillis, 12 March 2016

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Colorful_blur.JPG

Colorful blur created by moving subject, moving camera and 1/13 second exposure: photo by Robert Lawton, 2006

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/GGB_reflection_in_raindrops.jpg

Golden Gate Bridge refracted in rain drops acting as lenses
: photo by Mila Zinkova, 2007



 One protester sign at Trump's rally: "Fuck your stereotypes".: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 12 March 2016


Still thousands of protesters outside. Here's a sign of a popular rally cry: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 12 March 2016


At the Trump rally...: image via Alex Seitz-Wald @aseitzwald, 12 March 2016


Protestors and Trump supporters already screaming at each other in Cleveland: image via Sara Murray @SaraMurray, 12 March 2016
 

Trump supporter threatened to rip this protester's sign out of her hand, saying it was "her right" to do so: image via Sara Murray @SaraMurray, 12 March 2016

 
Classy shirt for sale at Trump rally in Cleveland: "Hillary Sucks But Not Like Monica.": image via Philip Rucker @PhilipRucker, 12 March 2016


"You're number one in racism!" one protester shouts. Another one has a Bernie sign.: image via Sara Murray @SaraMurray, 12 March 2016


Donald Trump's rally in Kansas City opens with "a prayer for tolerance."
: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 12 March 2016



So many protesters at #DonaldTrump rally that he's getting frustrated and walked away from lectern. #KansasCity: image via Andrew Westmoreland @drewwest_press, 12 March 2016



So many protesters at #DonaldTrump rally that he's getting frustrated and walked away from lectern. #KansasCity: image via Andrew Westmoreland @drewwest_press, 12 March 2016



So many protesters at #DonaldTrump rally that he's getting frustrated and walked away from lectern.#KansasCity: image via Andrew Westmoreland @drewwest_press, 12 March 2016


So many protesters at #DonaldTrump rally that he's getting frustrated and walked away from lectern.#KansasCity: image via Andrew Westmoreland @drewwest_press, 12 March 2016


Trump vows to press charges against protesters: image via The Hill @thehill, 12 March 2016


BREAKING: Police use pepper spray on Trump protesters in Kansas City: image via The Hill @thehill, 12 March 2016


Airplane hangar outside of Dayton is packed with Trump supporters
: image via Dan Balz @danbalz, 12 March 2016



Over 45,000 ppl came 2 support #Trump 2day at rallies. Looks like the violent "protestors" only helped our movement!: image via AEV @vandives, 12 March 2016


Daytona. I was hoping for 50,000 #Trump supporters. But 20,000 will do for now. It's 20x #Cruz events.: image via Campaign Trump@Campaign_Trump, 12 March 2016


Outside #TrumpChi rally: image via e. jason wambsgans @ejwamb, 12 March 2016

I am the man on the left, and she openly Hailed Hitler. And held the stance gladly.

I was inviting her to walk out down the path we cleared for her. Scouts honor.

I asked her to leave down the path we cleared for her, this was her response.


Michael Joseph Garza

Some letters must go silent for the word to make sense. I am chronically captivated. And I am captivated by family and jesus and poetry and you.: image via Michael Joseph Garza @ampersandcastle, 12 March 2016
  
I was astounded. Still tried to get her to leave, for her own safety at that point.

Right now I am some symbol, but all credit goes to my great city, Chicago. I did one thing, but WE did THIS thing... #TrumpRallyChi

-- tweets via Michael Joseph Garza @ampersandcastle, 12 March 2016


@SouthwestMotion @scottbix #goldietaylor @ampersandcastle She's not the only one. He was there last night too..: image via Anne-Jay @Miamiborn, 12 March 2016


Here comes #Security for the next #TrumpRally #Trump2016 #TrumpTrain: image via Lucid Hurricane @LucidHurricane, 12 March 2016



 #TrumpRallyChi cancelled because of "safety concerns" #TrumpRallyChi: image via teleSUR English @telesurenglish, 12 March 2016



 #TrumpRallyChi cancelled because of "safety concerns" #TrumpRallyChi: image via teleSUR English @telesurenglish, 12 March 2016



 #TrumpRallyChi cancelled because of "safety concerns" #TrumpRallyChi: image via teleSUR English @telesurenglish, 12 March 2016


 #TrumpRallyChi cancelled because of "safety concerns" #TrumpRallyChi: image via teleSUR English @telesurenglish, 12 March 2016



As the sun goes down, the Anti-Trump crowd appears to grow #TrumpRallyChi // via ABC sky cam: image via dope, it's tom  @DOPEITSTOM, 12 March 2016



As the sun goes down, the Anti-Trump crowd appears to grow #TrumpRallyChi // via ABC sky cam: image via dope, it's tom  @DOPEITSTOM, 12 March 2016



As the sun goes down, the Anti-Trump crowd appears to grow #TrumpRallyChi // via ABC sky cam: image via dope, it's tom  @DOPEITSTOM, 12 March 2016


As the sun goes down, the Anti-Trump crowd appears to grow #TrumpRallyChi // via ABC sky cam: image via dope, it's tom  @DOPEITSTOM, 12 March 2016


That says it all #@UICDumpTrump #TrumpRallyChi: image via AFSC Peace @AFSCpeace, 12 March 2016


Definitely some colorful characters here. I wonder who will punch me in the face? #Trumprallychi: image via Lauren Mialki Verified account @laurenmialki, 12 March 2016
 
Embedded image permalink

Why do they always have funny haircuts? #TrumpOnCNN
: image via miracle ninja @MiracleNinja777, 8 December 2015



In the streets of Berlin (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)

6 comments:

Stuart Ross said...

From up here north of the border, it's heartbreaking and terrifying. Thanks for these photo essays, and for the poem this time around. Holy shit.

Lally said...

depressing but nonetheless another brilliant post Tom

Hilton said...

Thanks for this collection of horrors. (Next to the woman with the Hitler salute, with his back to the camera, is a man with a yarmulka - absurdity upon absurdity.) We seem to be spinning downward into a fascist confrontation, so much so that Rubio and Kasich sound like reasonable anti-fascists, when their policies are almost as screwed up as Trump's. We got a wild ride ahead.

Mongo, At The Moment said...

It's been said elsewhere: after the Limbaughs, the Savages, the Coulters, Fox 'News' have dumped hate, intolerance, and distrust of a central government on the culture for a generation, is what we're seeing that surprising?

A friend -- a Red-Diaper baby whose parents were Austrian Jews and communists and who really had to run for it after the Anschluss -- used to gently brush aside my playing Cassandra on this topic over the past decade. Now he's telling me that his father, who is 96 and still very aware, is horrified by what he's seeing on television -- " 'It's 1932', is what he's saying."

TC said...

Many thanks to all... though there's odd feeling that I ought to be apologizing... for I'm not sure quite what, but most likely, Murica.

Stuart, same same from south of the border.

Michael, you've survived a lot in your time, but having Drumpf as a (virtual) neighbour, and living to tell of it, must surely rank as a feat of sorts.

Hilton, I know what you mean. Poor Little Marco, we hardly knew ye.

Mongo, my wife's parents like those of your friend happened to be civilized Austrians of the wrong sort at the wrong time, the time of the guy with the funny haircut, and of course the fallout of that, the aftermath, and the vision of darkness, staining the generations, is not something one can ever successfully avoid considering for very long.

Personally, I'm trying as hard as I can not to recognize where this is going right now, and doing a terrible job of it.

TC said...

Oh by the way, about the woman doing the Hitler Salute in the E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune photo, she is in fact German-born, aggressively unrepentant, comfortably suburban (from the look of her property) and very much a Drumpfoid. The protestor who said he had tried to protect her, Michael Joseph Garza... actually did protect her. Lot of thanks he got for that.

Drumpfoids put it about that she was somebody else entirely, a "plant", another woman, Sanders supporter, whom they named -- and who in turn quickly stepped up to dismiss the "plant" suggestion as merely another Drumpfoid disinformation gambit (similar to that regarding the the Dayton stage-rusher, whom the Drumpftrust had "identified" as "Isis", but who turned out to be like, just, you know, an understandably pissed off guy)... which had flopped.

The cigarette she's holding is simply too perfect for fiction or playacting.

(You can see this photo in colour on the previous post, by the way.)